Can Someone Help Me Make Sense of Configuring Controls

[ESzczesniak 128]

As a disclaimer, I'm a little late to the MSFS party.  I've had it since day one, but it's largely sat on the back burner.  I've been picking it up more recently, almost solely with the A32NX.  As a result, I'm aware the control interface has not been loved, but am not up-to-speed managing it currently.

So with that said, it seems like controller setup has regressed several generations.  I'm fortunate to have gotten early pre-orders at Amazon for all of the Thrustmaster TCA gear and have the stick, quadrant, and quadrant add-on I'm trying to configure.  The primary flight control axes were fairly straight forward.  Everything else seems to be a complete mess.  The issues I'm running in to are:

1. The flap and spoiler axes don't seem to work at all.  They are automatically assigned in the default profile, and recognized if I try to assign them manually.  But the spoiler axis doesn't seem to move at all if I look in the controller sensitivity screen.  The flaps axis keeps flashing and if the flaps handle is physically anywhere other than full up, the sim flaps keep bouncing from full to retracted.

2. The parking brake is an "always on" button when set.  But in the sim it keeps "flashing" and the break keeps toggling on/off several times a second.  There is no parking brake on, parking brake off command.  Nor are there options for "repeat" and "on release" for controllers.  This hardware has no issues in P3D with FSUIPC/LINDA.  The button doesn't "flicker" in those sims, and it is easy to set on/off commands.

3. The landing gear handle is easy to get out of sync, as the only command is "landing gear toggle", and again, there's no "on release" command.  So there's no way to say landing gear up when pressed, landing gear down when released.

4. The throttles work, but have the most bass ackwards curve to make the detents work.  Outwardly, they work, but if I lost the default curve I'd be lost. 

5. The autobrake section does not work

6. The engine start panel/switches actually work...not an issue.  Just thought I'd mention this actually works since just about nothing else does.

I'm aware of a couple options, but none seem the best right now:

1. Default interface within MSFS: seems completely broken, can't understand how it was released with a barely functional controller utility

2. FSUIPC7: Probably the best option.  If it ran like it does in P3D, I'd just use this.  But one of my major hopes for MSFS has been to simplify the whole process.  Having to start FSUIPC7 separately (I'm aware of the batch file to do this "automatically) seems like a notable step backwards.

3. vJoy + Joystick Gremlin: I know very little about this setup.  Maybe it's needed, but again, I'd love to simplify the process and learning a whole new setup is unappealing. 

4. LINDA: Love this for buttons and the custom aircraft modules in P3D, but requires FSUIPC and with only default functions currently available am not sure this adds much beyond FSUIPC currently.

5. Thrustmaster T.A.R.G.E.T.: I need to look more in to this.  I've never used it before because my controls in P3D are a combination of Honeycomb, MFG, and Thrustmaster...and I am not a big fan of external control programs.  I will eventually be using all of these in P3D, but currently am only using the Thrustmaster TCA products, so perhaps this is an options.

So with all of that said, does anyone have advice for how best to proceed?  Either in terms of directly addressing my difficulties with the specific control issues, or the sense of a bigger picture?  I'd appreciate any advice.  Most of the controller issues that show up in a Google search have to do with axis sensitivities, which seem much better now.  But I know I'm far behind the times on managing this sim.  I'm liking it, but it needs work in areas.

[hs118 706]

Eric,

Most of my controls were no problem to set up EXCEPT the brakes on my Thrustmaster TPR pedals. Despite my ease of set up experience, I am considering Lorby-SI Axes and Ohhs software for hardware controls.

I've used FSUIPC thru 5 iterations of the MS ESP sims but Axes and Ohhs allows access to the custom variables (LVars) that the aircraft developers define. FSUIPC will do this but Axes and Ohhs seems more intuitive to me.

Just my preliminary thoughts. Look forward to whatever route you take.

 

[ESzczesniak 128]

1 hour ago, yurei said:

Eric,

Most of my controls were no problem to set up EXCEPT the brakes on my Thrustmaster TPR pedals. Despite my ease of set up experience, I am considering Lorby-SI Axes and Ohhs software for hardware controls.

I've used FSUIPC thru 5 iterations of the MS ESP sims but Axes and Ohhs allows access to the custom variables (LVars) that the aircraft developers define. FSUIPC will do this but Axes and Ohhs seems more intuitive to me.

Just my preliminary thoughts. Look forward to whatever route you take.

 

Do you mean you have everything assigned through the default MSFS or are you using some other solution?

[hs118 706]

29 minutes ago, ESzczesniak said:

Do you mean you have everything assigned through the default MSFS or are you using some other solution?

Right now, all done thru default MSFS and only controlling default aircraft. I have a couple of 3rd party aircraft and the default controls do not work for those planes in certain functions. Thus, Axes and Ohhs for me.

[ESzczesniak 128]

4 minutes ago, yurei said:

Right now, all done thru default MSFS and only controlling default aircraft. I have a couple of 3rd party aircraft and the default controls do not work for those planes in certain functions. Thus, Axes and Ohhs for me.

Thank you. I’m trying to figure out if I need to figure out some way to delete/revert the controller profiles or give it up and go to an external program. 

[Car147 2,274]

7 hours ago, ESzczesniak said:

Thank you. I’m trying to figure out if I need to figure out some way to delete/revert the controller profiles or give it up and go to an external program. 

Here's a link that explains how to set up and configure your controls.... I found it very helpful, as are some of his other video's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DXdGaRgnhU

 

Edited January 14, 2021 by Car147

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

The main problem I had was dual assignments.  Each controller has the option of controlling all the functions and some are automatically assigned to a particular controller by default - sometimes copying the same assignment made to another controller.  It is pretty much a given that you will have to go through the assignments for each controller and make sure that the same assignment is not made for two, three, or more keys, buttons, or axis.  Takes a little time but if I, at 77 can do it, you can too.  Other than the keyboard and mouse, you might find it easier just to remove all assignments for your other controllers and start with a clean slate - making notes as you go along so that you are sure not to assign duplicates.  If you had only one joystick, for instance, everything would probably be just fine, but MSFS 2020 doesn't seem to understand that you have several controllers.

[edpatino 1,959]

My only advice is to be patient, look for very nice existing YouTube videos, and always is better is to assign all the controls directly into MSFS, without using any external software, to avoid additional unwanted issues and results.

Cheers, Ed

[ESzczesniak 128]

I'm not fully up and running, but a big issue was calibration of the Thrustmaster TQ WITH Add-on.  Thrustmaster's support is lagging behind releases and it turns out calibrating the throttle threw off my spoiler and flaps axis to effectively not register, or be almost digital (all off or all on) when I looked in the game controller settings.  TM still has no instructions for calibrating with the add-on, but it was relatively easy to deduce.  The flaps and spoiler axes are now on their way to work.  Most of the other buttons were reasonably on their way to working, so a little fine tuning and I think I can be there. 

 

EDIT: I had calibrated after a firmware update after setting up P3D, but before MSFS.  So, it looks like it got messed up during the calibration.  That's why this looked good in P3D, but wasn't working in MSFS. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by ESzczesniak